SOCIOLOGY,, LIKE all other social sciences, is historically and socially conditioned. It originated in the western milieu to meet primarily the problems which arose in the process of capital accumulation.industrializa-tion and urbanization. For a long time, it continued to reflect only the interests of those societies and the social classes which gave it shape and form. It was thus that sociology came to be considered a conservative discipline for rationalizing the existing socio-economic order. However, with the passage of time., under changing social conditions, the internal logic of the subject pushed the discipline or part of it beyond the confines of particular classes and societies. In other words, the internal logic of sociology, combined with the national and social liberation movements, the struggle of the working people, and the dissemination and development of historical and dialectical materialism, played a decisive role in shaping the changing character of conservative sociology. This process of change in a subject which claims to be the science of human society, though considerably limited and extremely gradual, has made an ever increasing impact on sociologists round the world.

In India, sociology is a comparatively late entrant into the academic world. But its origin can be traced back to the days when the British